Black Hearts: Darkness Rising
"Darkness is coming." -Official Tagline Black Hearts: Darkness Rising is the title of the fourth addition in the Black Hearts text adventure game saga by Q Games. The planned North American release date was September 9, 2013, 12:45 ET, but audio issues with the game, along with a lack of funding, had delayed this release date. Two teasers were released to the public pre-release, an announcement trailer on July 28, 2013, and another trailer on July 30, 2013 entitled "Revolution" at the Q4 games convention. With a lot of speculation as to the plot of this future game, Q Games began developing the project in relative secrecy. Darkness Rising was available worldwide on September 25, 2013. Development Darkness Rising officially was entered into the possible works pool in late July, 2013, and the project entered development stages soon after (pretty fast for a theoretical release). Q Games was careful not to mention much about development during Q4, maintaining that it was being worked on, and that it would definitely be released by early September that same year. There were not enough teams in the summer at the Q Games headquarters to work on the project, which was the main factor in delaying it to a fall release. The writers for the game planned modules established by late August. The game was so successful that attempts were made by hackers worldwide to access the server (from places in Mexico to Ukraine). However, game designers strengthened the system, and the server host Google defended hacking attempts. There is still odd complaints of aimbots and other hacking in multiplayer, but the 1.04d patch is expected to fix these holes. Plot & Setting Not much has been announced to the public as to the plot for the upcoming release. It is known that the game will take place after the events of Black Hearts: Cataclysm. The first trailer to the game clearly indicates a possible conflict between the Rovoen and humans (a prophecy telling of former allies becoming worst enemies). The revolution teaser discusses a Velconi insurgency that plans to build a new Velconum Empire on the ruins of the Irin Republic. It is also speculated that the Erkons hinted at in Cataclysm will play a major role in this game, but the extent of the involvement of the Kelim Hierarchy is unknown. With the recent release of the game, it is hoped the plot will unravel soon. Marketing Q Games has issued two trailers in order to announce the game, and has planned to upload two pieces from the official soundtrack ("Infinity" and "Darkness Rising - Main Theme") online as part of the marketing campaign for Darkness Rising. An advertising spokesperson said that Q Games plans to sell over 4 copies of the game, a very high goal. On the night of August 7, 2013, people who have bought previous Black Hearts games and/or preordered Black Hearts: Darkness Rising received a mysterious email from Q Games about a special opportunity concerning a horror story. In fact, what was disguised as a prototype horror piece by Q Club was actually a story related to the history of the Reborn, and was meant to be part of the buildup leading to the release of the game. Category:Games